LA Times: DC in ruins but Amy Klobuchar standing tall

[MBS]

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-heffernan-heroes-kavanaugh-he

arings-20181006-story.html

Like most normal members of the Senate, Klobuchar is both a proceduralist and a decent person.
A permission slip is what a fourth-grader needs to go home on a school day to change clothes. That’s proceduralism; it’s like the rules of order in the Senate. Or the notion that a Supreme Court nominee who has been accused of serious misconduct will undergo a thorough FBI investigation.

But a decent person — as distinct from the archetype of the good girl — is one who, with or without procedure, initiates petition drives, oversees prosecutions and, even more dramatically, asks questions that reveal a Supreme Court nominee’s fatuousness and lack of integrity. Klobuchar says she learned from her fourth-grade capitulation to a discriminatory dress code that she didn’t want to capitulate again.

She’s stuck to this. Klobuchar is the member of the Senate Judiciary Committee whose shrewd questions of Brett Kavanaugh, nominee for the Supreme Court, elicited his rudest, and what many believe was his most revealing, behavior. “So you’re saying you never drank so much that you didn’t remember the night before?” she asked the nominee. Perfect question: It went to the reliability of Kavanaugh’s memory, the consistency of his self-accounting, his history of reckless behavior and his capacity to be honest.. . .

She accepted, with detachment, an apology from Kavanaugh, who regretted having answered a question with a question. . . But she never accepted his non-answer to the blackout question. . . Kavanaugh’s evasions only redoubled Klobuchar’s commitment to an FBI investigation, to procedure. Of course, what Klobuchar advocated never came about. Instead, the Senate accepted a cursory FBI report and, in a 51-49 cloture vote, rushed the final decision on confirmation. “Where is the bravery in this room?” Klobuchar had asked right after the hearings. . .

[JudyM]

1. She was excellent, maintained composure under terrible circumstances. She just missed one important

follow-up question...

Skip to his 1st statement in response to the question Senator Klobuchar poses at the 2-minute mark:

I haven’t seen this reported on in any media. His response seems to implicitly give away that he remembers that night with Dr. Ford. Is it a momentary lapse in his guard?

[MBS]

2. I'd watched that clip several times

but I'd mostly focused on the cruelty of his remarks to Klobuchar (disqualifying for a Supreme Court judge in itself). I hadn't noticed that specific bit before.
Interesting.
Of course the entire clip- indeed his entire testimony- portrays a man who's lying. But "I remember what happened" is about as direct as you can get.

Bizarre how Susan Collins - or anyone else, for that matter -could convince herself/themselves that Dr. Blasey Ford made a "mistake." Nope, guys, sorry, no mistake.

[JudyM]

3. Right. I can't see what "I remember what happened" otherwise means if it's not an attempt at

defending against her implicit question whether he remembers that night. It short circuited his broader defense and he caught himself so attacked her in response immediately after.

I don’t believe they actually believe the mistaken identity argument. It’s just all they had since she was powerfully credible about the event itself. They didn’t probe who else in that crowd that night might’ve done it, after all... just a blanket whitewash.

[appalachiablue]

4. In DC, NOT 'In Ruins'! Lol. Klobuchar was outstanding, 1st tier.